Fiery head-on smash kills two

The weekend road toll rose to 11 last night after the deaths of two people in a fiery head-on crash between Te Awamutu and Otorohanga.

One car, a Mazda, ran out of control on a bend, spun and collided with an oncoming car, said a representative of the WestpacTrust Air Ambulance.

Two people died in the fire that consumed the Mazda, and the two occupants of the other car were seriously hurt. One, a middle-aged aged woman, was flown to Waikato Hospital by air ambulance.

Victims' names were not available last night.

A duck shooter returning late on Saturday from the season's opening-day shoot was killed after the four-wheel-drive he was travelling in overturned on Rathbones Bridge, on State Highway 50 near Tikokino, in central Hawkes Bay, about 11.15 pm.

He was David Eric Hill, aged 40, of Hastings. Four others in the vehicle were taken to Hastings Hospital with minor to moderate injuries.

Early on Saturday, two teenagers died when their car hit a bridge abutment near Fairlie, in the Mackenzie District.

They were Adam James Hand, 18, and Conor Christian Gallagher, 17, both of Fairlie.

Just after 7 am, a pedestrian walking on the Dunsandel-Hororata road south of Christchurch was killed by a car. He had not been identified late last night.

A 40-year-old man from Wairoa, northern Hawkes Bay, whose body was found in the middle of the road between Wairoa and Frasertown early on Saturday is believed to have been the victim of a hit-and-run.

Police think Jack Hokianga was lying on the road when he was hit by a passing vehicle.

On Friday afternoon, a 9-year-old boy died after getting off a school bus in Leeston, south of Christchurch, when a school bus hit him. He had not been named last night.

At 7 pm on Friday, a Browns Bay woman died in a two-car collision at Greenhithe, on the North Shore.

She was Josephine Pinder, aged 46.

About 8.20 pm a young man died in Southland after two cars collided on the Otautau-Riverton highway. He was Stephen John Morris, 20, of Otautau.

Two 18-year-olds received serious head injuries in the crash.

A cyclist who died after a collision with a four-wheel-drive vehicle in Dunedin on Friday night was James Russell Faulding, 21, a student, of Dunedin.

- NZPA